How Many Miles to Galena?

by Richard Pike Bissell

Be prepared to laugh and guffaw and hold your sides and, perhaps, depending on your age, reminisce a bit as you ride along with Richard Bissell as he recounts a number of memorable journeys with his wife and children (and the family dog) by car, plane, train, boat, and Alaskan ferry across the North American continent. Packed with an amazing collection - lists and bits and quotations - of travel lore, unforgettable characters, restaurants, old hotels, insights, and humorous commentary, you might wish you could turn back the clock and see the U.S.A. and Canada of yesteryear for yourself. Would you believe that TWA baked their own bread in flight? Get out!

Although the journey begins with a trip from South Norwalk, Connecticut to Kamloops - a suggestion from Richard's wife when he is itching to hit the road again ( "KAMLOOPS?" I scream. "WOW!" and I rush off to pack my bags, which I have just finished unpacking. "Round up the kids!" I holler. "Where's the map book? Where's the snakebite kit? Where is my bowie knife? Where is Kamloops?" ), the road meanders to a host of destinations including Dubuque, Iowa, Mount Rushmore(don't wear hair curlers), Yellowstone, Wyoming, Montana, the Alcan Highway and later Maine, Mount Snow, Vermont, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, Chicago, Las Vegas and finally Galena, the county seat of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, to sleep where Lincoln once slept.

Kick back and enjoy. More than half the fun is in getting there? How true. How delightfully true.

Genres: Travel, Humor

310 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Richard Pike Bissell (June 27, 1913-May 4, 1977) was an author of short stories and novels, playwright, business executive and riverboat pilot/master. He was best known for his river books, and for his novel 7½ Cents, based on his experience in the garment industry, which he helped convert into Pajama Game, one of the most popular Broadway musical comedies of the 1950's and made into a movie musical. He wrote a book about the experience called Say, Darling, which chronicled the ins and outs of a broadway musical production; this book was also turned into a musical of the same name.

Bissell was born and died in Dubuque, Iowa. The scion of a wealthy family he graduated from Harvard University, about which he wrote You Can Always Tell a Harvard Man. After college Bissell had a brief adventure in the Venezuelan oil fields and then signed on as a seaman on an American Export Lines freighter. In 1938 he married Marian Van Patten Grilk and returned to Dubuque, where they lived on a houseboat on the Mississippi River. Bissell became a vice president in the H. B. Glover Company, a clothing manufacturer. Turned down when he tried to enlist in the Navy during World War II, Bissell worked on towboats on the Ohio, Mississippi, Illinois, Tennessee, and Monongahela rivers. Returning to Dubuque and Glover's after the war, he published articles on his riverboat experiences in such prestigious national magazines as Atlantic Monthly, Collier's, and Esquire.

In 1950 Bissell published his first novel, A Stretch on the River, a largely autobiographical story whose nonstop dialogue portrayed the excitement, humor, and independence of a hard-working steamboat crew on the upper Mississippi. It was published to significant critical acclaim; several commentators compared Bissell to Twain. Both flattered and embarrassed by the frequent comparisons to Twain, Bissell addressed the issue with self-deprecating humor in 1973 with the publication of My Life on the Mississippi, or Why I Am Not Mark Twain.

I learned three-quarters of what I know about writing from reading Richard Bissell, God bless him.
—-Elmore Leonard

Reviews

[Jan C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave it 5 stars for sentimental reasons. We had it on the coffee table when my grandfather came for a visit. He said it was one of those books that you could open to any page and it was entertaining. All these years later - Mac was right. And it has been a rocky trip down memory lane. Whether he is talking about Chicago, Baltimore or even Galena.

He takes us on a trip down the intracoastal waterway. I had a boss who brought a boat up it. Probably a rough trip either way.

[Irish Gal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written in the sixties but was still a good read. Besides enjoying the humor, it was interesting reading about places that no longer exist, or have been improved (like the Al-Can highway), realizing some things he bemoaned the loss of have since been restored (like the Cassville Ferry and the sloop Constitution) and that other things (like some hotels) haven't changed at all.

He traveled by towboat and yacht (both of which he pilots himself), car, air and train, and the changes there are interesting too (TWA making fresh bread DURING THE FLIGHT!). Since he is originally from Dubuque he is intimate with some more "local" places I have been to also, so that was an extra kick for me. I'll even forgive him for not liking Rockford, IL.

[Mike Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great period travel book of America. Galena Illinois is the concluding chapter